About those Russian Bears…seems they may have had atomics
With the recent uptick in activity by wandering Russian Tu-95MS Bear long-range strategic bombers following tensions over the dust-up in the Ukraine, these big winged beasts have been seen increasingly everywhere from Sara Palin’s front yard to the skies over Copenhagen (the Danish capital, not the worm dirt)
Well it seems that a pair of these airborne hippos that came so close to the UK last week that they gave local air traffic control a case of the shakes had at least one nuke on board. They were escorted by a pair each of IL-78 tankers and MIG-31 long-range interceptors.
It seems the Norwegians, who intercepted the 6-plane task group and escorted them with some 1980s-vintage F-16A fighters, overheard radio chatter that made them believe that, “one of the two long-range bombers was carrying at least one air-dropped ‘seek and find’ nuclear warhead-carrying missile, designed to seek and destroy a Vanguard submarine.”
The Vanguard is the RN’s class of four Trident SBLM-carrying ballistic missile sub. On the weapon the Bear was toting, my bet is that it may be a variant of the old Kh-55SM (NATO’s AS-15B), a carrier-killer cruise missile with a 200kt warhead with a Red Storm Rising vintage.
As to be expected, the Russians say, nyet, to any claims that the old Bear was packing.